Science Forums 2

[Moontanman]

Originally Posted by Freddy

The Japanese were a defeated nation by the summer of 1945. Dropping the two atomic bombs shortened the war preventing the planned US invasion of Japan. The Japanese were forced to leave every country they had invaded. Without the atomic bombing it would have perhaps taken a year longer at the most to defeat Japan. Communism under Mao and Ho Chi Minh had roots in China and Vietnam, respectively, before and during the Pacific War 1931-1945. France moved back into Vietnam quickly after WWII was over with US financial backing, but the communists fought back and pushed them out in 1954. Then the US slowly began sending military advisers to South Vietnam and by March 1965 US Marines ground troops landed at DaNang. I see no connection to a communist Vietnam and the atomic bombings.

One theory states that the atomic bombs were dropped to end the war quickly which kept the communist USSR from having any say in Japan's fate after its defeat.

Another theory states that because the US possessed nuclear weapons it made the Korean and Vietnam Wars less risky.

I like the way you say it wouldn't have taken much more than a year to bring the Japanese to the surrender table. WOW Just a year I guess the US could have done that, just sit back for a year and wait for them to come to their senses. NOT! The US would have had to fight them tooth and toe nail for every square inch of Japan, causing tens or hundreds of thousand of extra combat casualties on both sides and almost certainly millions of civilian deaths as well.

The Japanese were preparing for the invasion of their home land by giving every man woman and child the opportunity to die for their Emperor. From what the US experienced on he Japanese islands the US invaded a great many of the Japanese people would have fought to the death or committed suicide. Millions of lives were saved by dropping those bombs.
It is very sad the US had to do drop the atomic bombs but the Japanese were indeed totally committed to death before defeat in a very real way.

I think the US did the correct thing, considering that Japan was developing their own weapons of mass destruction, mostly biological but some say the Japanese had already detonated a small atomic bomb off the coast of North Korea just days before the US dropped the atomic bomb on them. (see the "Secrete weapons of WW 2 on the history channel") It's certain they knew of the possibility of the atomic bomb and were working on their own version but they had done years of research on bio weapons and had already used them in China.

They had a super sub ready to deploy to the US with a small aircraft on board to launch from the ocean to drop bio weapons on the US at the very time the US made them surrender! A year would have allowed the Japanese to complete the advanced weapons they were working on and that the US found hidden in caves so they couldn't destroyed by the bombs being dropped every day on Japan.

So should the US have dropped the bomb, Oh yes, should have waited a year, Oh no! Did the US see the coming of the communists in South East Asia, probably not, but it wouldn't have changed what the US had to do.